


A Hero in the Darkness

by Caia (Caius)



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Apocafic, F/F, Four Million Years, Ladyslash Comment Fest, Plug and Play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-24
Updated: 2010-05-24
Packaged: 2017-10-09 17:05:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/89692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caius/pseuds/Caia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chromia and Firestar, surviving, in the four million years after the Ark left.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Hero in the Darkness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Katarik](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katarik/gifts).



Too reckless, Firestar would say, as she pulled Chromia out of the wreckage, out of the battlefield, after failing to save one yet one more 'bot, slag one more 'con, salvage one more drop of energon. But she wouldn't ever let it stop her from pulling Chromia out and repairing her with her own hands.

Too young, Chromia would say, when they huddled together and the older 'bots spoke of the days before the famine and even before the war. But she didn't ever let it stop her from pausing to explain or to wrap an arm around Firestar, reminding her that she had a place with them.

Elita-1 would tell the tales: Chromia had been reckless, apparently, for more years than even Elita could remember. "You're one to talk about recklessness, Chromia, you were shooting 'cons and hauling 'bots out of the depths of Kalis when even the Wreckers had left." Or jumping from tower to tower in old Vos, shooting Seekers; or hauling lost 'bots out of the smelting pools of Polyhex right under Governor Straxus' optics. So many fantastical tales they told of Chromia's exploits in places now in ruins with 'bots and 'cons long scrapped or smelted.

Firestar couldn't confirm any of these tales, of course. She had been in the very last batch of 'bots brought before Vector Sigma before war and famine brought that all to an end. She and Moonracer were among very youngest Autobots that existed--as far as they knew, the only ones of their small batch still online--and Chromia was one of the oldest 'bots that still lived--as old as Alpha Trion himself, at least as far as Firestar was concerned.

Sometimes the others--especially when Moonracer had gotten herself into trouble--would say that age brought responsibility and caution, but Firestar and Chromia knew that that wasn't true, every time Chromia was hauled back to camp strapped to the bed of Firestar's altmode instead of, or right next to, Moonracer.

Whether they battled 'cons (as often as not, these days, nearly as desperate and hungry as their little group of Autobots, but you had to do what you had to do), or strange mutants and demons and cyber-beasts scrabbling at the ruins of the dying planet, or the endless instability of a landscape built over and over again until there was nothing left to build with but the buildings themselves--Chromia was there, using her gun as a tool or a bludgeon as naturally as she'd used it as a gun, when there had been the energy to fire it, bringing the heroism and the recklessness of days long past into the desperate dark famine of the now.

And, inevitably, Firestar was there too, to carry the supplies and her comrades. Chromia had, of course, lived for vorns upon vorns before Firestar was there to rescue her: but there were mechs, then, and energy, and specialist medics, and the Prime. Firestar could remember some of those days: before the Ark left and never returned, and Chromia and the others became hers to rescue and, as far as she could, care for.

(They heard from other Autobot groups, sometimes, on encrypted radio links; but the security risk and the energy expenditure was hardly worth the company, most vorns.)

In the rest periods--when there was nothing to do but hide in what safety they have, and preserve their supplies by moving and staying online as little as possible--they rotated shifts to sleep linked up, pooling resources and drawing energy from each other's heat. Only very rarely was there the energy for an actual interface, but Firestar found lying in Chromia's arms, linked up to her systems, was the nearest thing to it. There was just so much Chromia, in her energy field and her processors and her chassis, that the link hummed with energy and data and Firestar felt alive for the full time she was offline.

One time--not long into their endless battle for survival--Chromia had told Firestar that she had felt protected that whole time, and Firestar fell in love with her right then and there. Chromia was going to live--she had to, she had lived so long, held so much in her that no one else did, anymore--and Firestar was going to live to protect her.


End file.
